By Paul Lamin in Kenema
The Chairman of the Kenema District Council (KDC), Mohamed Amadu Sesay, has said, in a meeting during Councils’ budget presentation past weekend, that local service delivery demands accountability.
Mr. Mohamed Amadu Sesay told Councillors, MDAs and general staff of councils that funds meant for operations of Councils must be carefully planned and executed as the decentralization process demands.
He said, for the past couple of years, Councils have pushed for holistic devolution process, but it seems as though some forces are at play in the central governance structure of the state, which is not allowing processes to go through.
The District Council Chairman said Local Councils are the machines that bring development to the common people. He therefore called on the central government to take the business of decentralization seriously, adding that if funds are not provided for Councils’ activities, on time, development is bound to stall.
He used the opportunity to thank the European Union (EU) for dishing out an EU grant of 4.5m Euros for different projects to be undertaken by the Kenema District Council.
The Deputy Director, Fiscal Decentralization Division from the Ministry of Finance, Ibrahim Bureh, said the presentation of the budget was the beginning of the financial year and Councils are expected to go back at committee levels to discuss details, which will be later forwarded to the Ministry of Finance .
He said the Budget presentation must be centered around five key deliverables that would be successfully implemented by the Council and MDAs. He said, for 2020, government has not given the necessary funds for the operations of the Councils, but stated that cheques have already been prepared for onward disbursement of outstanding funds to Councils.
Mr. Bureh cautioned that all NGO development projects must be done through the Local Councils so that duplication of projects would be avoided.
In his statement, PC Mohamed Dafie Benya, of Small Bo Chiefdom, pledged support to the Kenema Council on behalf of colleague Paramount Chiefs of the 16 chiefdoms. He said, as Chiefdoms, they are the direct beneficiaries of district council development projects, adding that, as PC Member of Parliament, at some point in time he was actively involved in budget discussion of Local Councils in Parliament.
He called on PCs of Kenema District to be actively involved in the monitoring of Council and other development projects in their Chiefdoms
Presentation of 2021 FY budget by MDAs and Councils formed the climax of the meeting.